The Inter-American Drug Abuse
Control Commission (CICAD), the drug control agency of the
Organization of American States (OAS), traces its origins to the
"cocaine epidemic" of the late 1970s and early 1980s.
It was against the backdrop of the explosion of smoked (crack)
cocaine and the emergence of powerful drug cartels, as well as
increasing mutual North/South recriminations over who was
"responsible," that the OAS General Assembly convoked the
Hemisphere's ministers of justice to meet at the first
Inter-American Specialized Conference on Traffic in Narcotic
Drugs in Rio de Janeiro in April 1986.

In November of the same year,
the OAS General Assembly established CICAD as a technical agency
of the OAS, and ratified the framework and guiding principles
contained in the Program of Rio, which establishes illicit drug
control, not as a stand-alone issue, but firmly in the context
of socio-economic development, environmental protection, human
rights and respect for the traditions and customs of national
and regional groups.

Starting small

Initially, CICAD was composed
of 11 member states elected by the General Assembly every three
years by secret ballot. However, over time, as the global illicit
drug problem became more acute throughout the hemisphere, other
OAS countries asked to join the Commission, and in 1998, all 34
countries became members. The country representatives
to the Commission, who are high-ranking officials appointed by
their governments, meet twice a year in regular session, and may
meet in special session, if necessary (CICAD's
Statute and Regulations). The OAS Secretary General, in
consultation with the Commission, designates an Executive
Secretary who heads an office of specialized staff, known as the
Executive Secretariat of CICAD.

Strategizing

In June 1997, the General
Assembly adopted the Anti-Drug
Strategy in the Hemisphere as a platform for greater
efforts to control drugs in the twenty-first century.
The Strategy reflected the significant changes that had occurred
in the 10 years since the Program of Rio, including increased
production and abuse of synthetic drugs, such as
methamphetamines and Ecstasy, and the use of the Internet to buy
and sell prescription drugs and cigarettes and to transfer
illegal drug proceeds electronically anywhere in the world.
Very significantly from a foreign relations perspective,
the Strategy showed a clear realization on the part of Western
Hemisphere governments that drugs, drug-related crime and
violence, and the significant health and social consequences of
drug use and abuse are problems that all countries share and to
which there must be a shared responsibility and a shared
solution.

Responding to a 1998 mandate
from the Second Summit of the Americas (Final
Declaration and Plan
of Action), CICAD embarked on a multilateral process of
assessing the performance of each member state and the
hemisphere as a whole in addressing the various aspects of the
drug problem. The Multilateral Evaluation Mechanism (MEM), now
in its fifth evaluation round, requires all CICAD member states
to answer in detail a set of standardized questions and provide
statistics on such matters as arrests and convictions for drug
crimes, level of drug use by different population groups,
signature and ratification of international treaties related to
drug control, and existence of national laws to control arms
smuggling and the shipment of chemicals used to process illicit
drugs. The completed questionnaires are reviewed by a
group of experts from member states, which then drafts reports
and recommendations for each country and for the hemisphere as a
whole. Once approved by the member states representatives to the
Commission, the reports (MEM
Reports) are submitted to the OAS General Assembly and made
public.

CICAD is also studying methods
of estimating the economic, social and human cost of drugs to
society, at the request of the Third
Summit of the Americas, as a means of aiding policy and
decision makers determine efficient programs in dealing with
drug problem.

In May 2009, OAS General
Secretary José Miguel Insulza called on member states to update and strengthen
the 1996 strategy in response to the dynamics of the illicit drug trade. After a
year-long consultation, the Commission approved the
Hemispheric Drug
Strategy in May 2010, and immediately started work on the
Plan of Action
2011-2015. The Plan of Action was approved in May 2011, just when the
Commission was preparing to mark its 25th anniversary.